DiRT 3, Operation Flashpoint 2 Coming Mid 2011, GRID 2 In 2012

Codemasters has dropped several hints about release dates.

First up, Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising coming sometime between April and June 2011:

“I don’t think it does any good to publish in a congested period when everyone’s putting out their shooters,” Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens told.

“A number of leading companies have their fiscal year ends around that time, and so they’ll be firing heavyweights in terms of their product releases to give as much boost to their fiscal year end as they possibly can.

“That’s not a window I want to go out in. It will be between 1st April and the end of June.”

DiRT 3 is due in the same time frame, ie. April and June 2011:

“What we’re not going to do is do more of the same with each rendition of the game,” Cousens promised. “There is a lot more to it.

“Let’s put it into context. It’s from probably the finest racing studio in the world. It’s between us and the Need for Speed guys, and I would argue we’re better.”

Fans of GRID will be excited to know that a sequel is due in 2012:

“We’re not difficult to predict,” Cousens said. “If DiRT comes out next year, GRID will come out the following year, and then DiRT will be out the year after that. So you can map us out.

“Sitting alongside that will be F1 every year. Flashpoint we’ll do every other year. The idea is to come up with a new IP that sits in opposite years to each other, but we’re in the racing segment and the action segment.

“So you can pretty much lay out my business plan for the next five years.”